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Friday, April 1, 2011

CH39: News Paper Boy

On my way to take a bath (around 330 am), I heard a rustling sound outside the door. Well, it piqued my interest because I have been used to everything being so quiet in our side of Singapore.

When I opened the door, I saw a red figure rustle past towards the other wing. I thought it was some sort of thief or something, so I went out. When I looked at the other wing of our block, I figured that the person I saw running was the news paper boy.

I spotted that he was barefoot.

I also figured that with the route he was taking, he first went up the fifteenth floor and went through 1 wing delivering newspapers, before going to the other wing to perform more deliveries before going through down the stairs and so on and so forth.

What I was impressed about, which I figured better get written down here in a blog post, was how organize the scheme was. Here are the things I thought were amazing and some questions as well:
1. The organization of the process of delivering newspapers, although primitive was intellectual. I was pondering at some point whether initially (before elevators were invented), the process was to go up the stairs delivering newspapers and then taking the stairs back down. Or whether initially even though there was a newspaper, stairs up and elevator down.

2. The stamina of the news paper boy (a Napi/Indian) was quite amazing as well, as from my observation, he did not slow down at all through the whole time I was watching - so that was from floor 9 (my floor) down.

3. I was also struck by a titillating thought. My block number is 700+. In my side of Singapore - Tampines, there are about 900+ (I think) blocks all in all. So, the question I had in my mind was, how many news paper boys like what I saw are there? How many blocks does one news paper boy have to complete in order to consider a job done. Then, add to that, the other "towns" here in Singapore. How much man power is needed in order for the people of Singapore to get their daily fix of news? Is the process outsourced? Or is the delivery itself under the same ownership as the newspaper publication? And lastly, how profitable is that kind of business?

4. Why was the person delivering the news barefoot? Was it purely out of comfort? I walked out and observed the Napi delivering the papers, and my foot already got itchy, and I had goosebumps thinking what if stepped on someone's dried spit - but then I realized that spitting is illegal here, so most people should have developed the discipline not to do so. And, getting back on the barefoot thing, is it more efficient to perform the task without any foot wear? Is there friction introduced? Or perhaps, the man was simply barefoot, because if he had footwear on, then it would have been additional weight, thus making him more inefficient? Or perhaps, he didnt wear any footwear for the sole reason that if he did, then it will become all used up and "pudpud," thus incurring upon himself additional cost.

5. I found it funny, that for a slight instance, before I figured out who the person in red was, I thought, Santa should not be dark and thin ... plus, it's just April! Hahaha. Thoughts come rushing by.